NEDERLAND -- In its heyday during the 1970s and early '80s, Caribou Ranch -- tucked in a lush valley three miles north of this mountain town -- was the "creative monastery" for some of the biggest names in the music business.

Songs such as "Philadelphia Freedom," "Shining Star" and "New York State of Mind" were penned in Caribou's cabins and on the ranch's grounds.

More than 150 artists -- including John Lennon, Michael Jackson and The Beach Boys -- would record at Caribou's state-of-the-art music studio before a fire silenced the barn-based recording operation on a cold day in March of '85.

A quarter-century later, Caribou is on the brink of potentially the biggest change to come to the Peak to Peak Highway property since 1971, when James Guercio, a young and idealistic Chicago music producer, settled here to establish one of the first destination recording studios.

Efforts are underway to reopen the studio and vault Caribou to "Sundance" status.

"Music is definitely going to come out of this valley again," said Guercio's son Will.

Two weeks ago, Jim Guercio and his family listed their remaining 1,600 acres of Caribou for $45 million; however, a simple transfer of ownership to a deep-pocketed buyer might not be how the story ends.

The Guercios are envisioning a potential multi-deal transaction that could involve the sale of parts of the property and a separate deal where the family would bring on a partner to reopen the music studio and have Caribou attract a variety of artists and clientele.

"At some point, you've got to face mortality," said Jim Guercio, 68, a few days after Breckenridge-based Mountain Marketing Associates Ltd. posted the sale listing online.

To carry Caribou forward for the next generation, Guercio said his family is facing economic realities and aligning those with the overwhelming desire to preserve the area's natural beauty and the ranch's place in music history.

"We have the commitment and the dream," Guercio said, "but we might not have the resources 50 years from now."

'Spiritual experience'

As the 1960s came to a close, Jim Guercio was growing wary and restless about the way music was produced in New York and Los Angeles.

Studio rules and union regulations hindered the ability to produce, Guercio said, noting he couldn't man the controls himself, but rather had to relay instructions to an engineer.

James Guercio talks about music and conservation at Caribou Ranch in Nederland.
(
Mark Leffingwell
)

Creativity was taking a back seat to efficiency.

A band would drop cash for a three-hour block only to have that window tighten because of the set-up and breakdown of equipment.

The recording of Blood, Sweat & Tears' "Spinning Wheel" was the final straw for Guercio.

As the clock was running out on the session and as the horns continued their pomp and circumstance without a fade, the distracted union engineer accidentally started to erase the master track, Guercio said. The drums, horns, vocals -- everything -- were gone from the end of the song.

Guercio took a razor blade to the tape and spliced in more of the carnival-like "Oh du Lieber Augustin" melody that playfully joined the track.

An instrument case left behind years ago by Elton John at Caribou Ranch in Nederland.
(
Mark Leffingwell
)

"I didn't know it was going to work," Guercio said.

The track achieved Gold record status and was nominated for three Grammy Awards in 1970, winning in the Best Arrangement category. The Blood, Sweat & Tears self-titled record also took home Album of the Year.

Guercio, however, had his fill.

"'I can't work like (this); I've got to have a studio,'" Guercio recalled saying at the time.

To escape the radius of the record companies' reach and rule, Guercio scoped out ranches in the West. He looked at land in Montana and Wyoming, but quickly found what he desired in Colorado's Rocky Mountains.

At Caribou -- a property eyed for a 120-house subdivision -- the interplay of the rushing North Boulder Creek with the pine trees, wildflowers, high mountain hay, historic homestead and the breadth of wildlife captured Guercio's attention.

"When we saw this place, it was a spiritual experience," he said.

After three years of legal wrangling and negotiations, Guercio in 1971 started moving forward on his creative hideaway.

He wanted a studio where there were no restrictions on equipment or engineers, a studio where equipment and instruments could be accessed 24 hours, seven days a week and no breakdown or set-up would be required. He wanted that studio to be nestled in an environment where everyone could be inspired.

"It was the most crazy experiment," Guercio said. "Everybody said, 'No one will come up there. What are you, nuts?'"

The "Field of Dreams"-esque build-it-and-they-will-come mantra would be realized.

Joe Walsh did, and others followed

Walsh, the former James Gang member, was working nearby on a record for his new band, Barnstorm, when a mixer blew. Hearing that Guercio was building a studio in a barn, Walsh ventured over to Caribou and recorded Barnstorm's self-titled album there.

During the next 14 years, Caribou Ranch hosted more than 150 musicians; served as a setting for a couple Dick Clark-produced TV specials; and was a home of a steady mix of antics and artistry.

Lingering memories

On a recent Friday at the ranch, as Guercio tended to a phone call, Kenny Passarelli -- a Denver-based bassist who played on dozens of Caribou records, including Barnstorm -- and John Carsello, longtime Caribou ranch manager-turned archivist, strolled through the property relaying memories in spitfire with each step and turn.

They kept a room of wooden skis, boots and jackets for the stars who often would arrive in platform shoes.

One of the trees on the property bears a scar from Stephen Stills running a car in the wrong gear.

Billy Joel, spooked from the potentially haunted Running Bear cabin, stayed in the taxidermy head-laden house where the crews typically stayed. A bandmate grabbed a wild boar's head, donned it with a beret and sunglasses and placed a cigarette in its mouth and placed it on Joel's bed.

Joel, who was renowned for impersonations and could throw his voice like a champ, would prank call the ranch pretending to be Paul McCartney or Elvis Presley.

As John Lennon laid down vocals and guitar for Elton John's version of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," May Pang, Lennon's then-girlfriend, was taken aback by the oxygen tank sitting in the middle of the recording studio.

The 8,600-foot elevation at Caribou also created some interesting effects musically. Artists could sing an octave higher and a kick drum's boom at Caribou would bounce a plastic Jesus off a dashboard at sea level, the Caribou crew said.

When Michael Jackson visited the ranch to record parts for Bad, the singer who was raised as a Jehovah's Witness put on a fat suit and headed down the mountain where he went door to door preaching.

"People in Boulder didn't know they were talking to Michael," Carsello said.

The same smells -- the Ponderosa Pine, the mortar and the smoke from the wood-burning fireplaces -- permeate today as they did then.

"All of a sudden, you're back here in 1972," Passarelli said of the sensory-triggered memories.

In the barn, which served as the crux of the operation, a lingering char masks the familiar smells from the cabins.

On a cold day in March 1985, Will Guercio, then 6, was watching "The Smurfs" with his sister when they heard a loud siren. Running to the window of the master house, the children saw a thick, black cloud barreling out the smokestack of the barn.

A space heater had sparked a blaze that crawled up a corner of the barn and quickly ravaged the control room, game room and kitchenette. When Guercio returned that night from California, one-third of the barn was destroyed.

Guercio later decided not to rebuild the studio operation. The music landscape was moving toward digital and the way rock 'n' roll was changing wasn't necessarily the best environment for his kids.

The elder Guercio has stepped foot in the barn only five times since the '85 fire, Will Guercio said.

Portions of the barn now serve as storage and as a vault of its melodious past. Gold records line the stairway to the second floor where enlarged photos sit on easels in the entryway to the former control room and lounge.

The pictures, which include a black-and-white photo of The Beach Boys smiling by the fireplace and a color photo of the control deck, give a glimpse of what existed previously.

The rocks of that fireplace now bear the scorches from the flames.

The blaze, however, did not consume the heart and soul of the operation.

Behind an Oz-like curtain sits the recording studio. The thick, brown carpet has been replaced by a wood floor, but the place "where the magic happened" remains unscathed.

'One shot'

Will Guercio estimates that it could take upward of $3 million to outfit the studio to today's standards. That projection could drop as officials from outfits within Nashville, L.A. and New York have reached out to the local ranch and expressed interest in contributing equipment, he said.

"They say, 'We don't know what you're going to do, but we want to be involved in Caribou,'" he said.

Both artists from Caribou's prime and those from the current crop of musicians also have said they wanted to record at the isolated ranch, he said.

He believes that there once again is a demand for a destination studio -- especially at a time when paparazzi reign and a cell phone snapshot is seconds away from going viral on the Internet.

Will Guercio, who has developed roughly 20 different business plans for the property, said the site that was his family's home for the past four decades is ripe for opportunity.

The pastoral Elk Meadow, where the band Chicago was filmed riding horses for one of their TV specials, is a natural amphitheater that could serve as a backdrop for a concert, he said. The cabins could be refurbished to "five-star" accommodations for the visiting musicians or other guests of Caribou, if the ranch were to host weddings or corporate retreats, he added.

"White collar, blue collar ... people deserve to see what my dad created over the years," he said, adding his vision is to create the "Sundance of the music world."

Rumbling through the property in a four-seat utility vehicle, Will Guercio extolled the potential for the site. The 34-year-old Guercio has spent the better part of 12 years preparing for a sale -- digging ponds, clearing slash and readying infrastructure.

Through past transactions with the city of Boulder and Boulder County, more than half of Caribou Ranch became open space and the remainder gained a slew of entitlements.

Possible developments could include nearly 20 homes, including up to 10,000-square-foot estate houses, and structures such as a fishing lodge and equestrian center.

Will Guercio said a good chunk of calls he's fielded have been from the $5 million to $10 million buyer -- a music-loving investor who's interested in owning an estate home on the ranch.

Declining to disclose details, Guercio said he and his family are progressing in discussions with potential partners for the ranch headquarters and studio and are "95 percent" settled on a business plan. Guercio added that talks also are ongoing with the city of Boulder and Boulder County officials.

Ron Stewart, director of Boulder County Parks and Open Space, cited policy and said that he could not talk about any possible negotiations with parties until those talks have been finalized.

"We wouldn't have the capability nor the interest in buying out the full interest in the property," Stewart said.

To the extent that Boulder County is interested in certain parcels, Stewart could not say.

"It's a magnificent property and it's one of the larger, if not the largest holdings in that upper mountain region in Boulder County," he said of the open space purchase. " ... It's something that we really feel good about having done."

Will Guercio echoed his father's sentiments about the economic realities of continuing to operate the expansive ranch and acknowledged that there is a sense of urgency on the family's part to solidify a deal or multiple transactions. The younger Guercio also expressed a desire to continue living on the ranch and finding a way to make music at Caribou while preserving the property as his father intended.

"It's our family ranch, we want to do what's right," Will Guercio said. "We only have one shot."

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